SCION – transporting sensitive data securely
SCION – for secure data transmission
Standing for Scalability, Control and Isolation On Next-Generation Networks, a SCION network architecture delivers the highest levels of availability, security and control, combined with the openness and flexibility of the public Internet.
The Internet is the backbone of today’s economy, but cyberattacks, instability and a lack of monitoring pose a threat to companies the world over. SCION offers a new solution that guarantees a high level of security.
How does SCION work?
When is it the right solution?
Do your critical infrastructures in the healthcare, energy, transportation or banking sectors need secure data transmission, encrypted data transfer and maximum resistance to DDoS attacks? Are you looking for reliable, high-bandwidth, low-latency performance for your VR applications or video streaming?
If you need a highly secure network to securely share sensitive data across Swiss or international ecosystems and want to determine and control the paths your data will take, SCION is the ideal network architecture for maximum business continuity.
SCION connectivity
Typical SCION application scenarios
Remote access to SCION-protected services
Suppliers of high-availability services, such as energy suppliers, online banking, hospitals, digital payments etc., are constantly exposed to significant risks ranging from cyberattacks and natural disasters through to human error.
SCION GATE enables remote users and customers to access protected services in the conventional way, directly via the Internet, without the necessity for additional software. It constitutes an innovative safeguarding tool, offering superior protection for critical services by routing communications through predefined, secure pathways within the SCION network.
Swisscom can therefore, at very short notice, promise its customers in critical sectors reliable network performance, improved latency and increased resistance to external threats. SCION significantly increases the protection and availability of essential services in order to support the smooth operation of vital infrastructures.
An ecosystem of multiple Swiss companies
What advantages does SCION offer a community of Swiss companies, which exchange confidential data within Switzerland?
When you have an ecosystem comprising different Swiss organisations, critical information must be exchanged securely, in real time and across organisational boundaries. This can be done by:
- Connecting over the public Internet
- Connecting to a single shared instance of a single-provider private network
- Using a data line and connecting to the concentration node of an in-house private network
SCION technology offers the most value for the “Swiss ecosystem” application scenario. If SCION is used as the ecosystem’s underlying network technology, all organisations are connected to the SCION Internet and thus have multiple paths to their destinations at all times. These diverse paths, all of which can be used at the same time, dramatically increase reliability and security – making the network the ideal transport network for business-critical data.
A SCION-based ecosystem therefore also solves existing challenges, such as the man-in-the-middle problem, and facilitates secure, any-to-any communication between the members of the ecosystem.
A Swiss organisation with locations outside Switzerland
What is the added value of the SCION network for organisations that exchange sensitive data within an international ecosystem?
A Swiss company must exchange business-oriented data traffic with its locations outside Switzerland. Some of the applications are latency sensitive (voice, video, VDI etc.). Others are bandwidth intensive (application or security updates, e-learning etc.) and some have no specific requirements (e-mail, CRM, HR etc.) but are still sensitive. The applications are hosted either in a private data centre or in the cloud. Organisations essentially have two options:
- Use the public Internet as a transport channel for encrypted tunnels such as an IP VPN
- Build an international private network, such as an MPLS VPN
Swisscom has an extensive network of high-performance, advanced business Internet IP-Plus backbones in the major cities of Europe, Asia Pacific, North and South America, the Middle East and Africa. This backbone integrates SCION technology to allow highly secure SCION connectivity from international locations to Switzerland.
The combination of Swisscom’s advanced business Internet IP-Plus backbone and SCION technology enables Swisscom to offer its customers optimum latency on international connections, fast access to Swisscom’s own secure infrastructure and secure connectivity for international business communications.
Why Swisscom?
Our partnerships
“With our Swisscom SCION Service, your critical networks become robust against network attacks and resilient against disruptions, guaranteeing business continuity.“
Urs Lehner
Head of Business Customers